


Of Sugar and Sweet Smiles

by saunatonttu



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, University, coincidences lead to fun things, side kurodai, student life is hard but it gets better with Suga
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-27 10:46:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5045338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saunatonttu/pseuds/saunatonttu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A chance meeting with Sugawa Koushi leads to shared cups of tea and mourning over papers due the next day, and somewhere along the line Keiji trips headfirst into an intense feeling of first love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Sugar and Sweet Smiles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sizhu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sizhu/gifts).



> Momooooooooooo <3 You're always supporting me, and I'm thankful for you and our friendship that consists of grumbling about caffeine addictions and university and rareships and their lack of content. 
> 
> Thank you so much for putting up with me as well as cheering me up in ways only you manage to do for me.   
> (Also what is editing. I don't know.)

Akaashi Keiji knew his face was one of those ones that were easily misinterpreted as stoic and cold. It had happened often throughout his childhood and well into high school, as well, and while Keiji couldn't fault people for assuming that, it was irritating all the same as people tended to disregard him the moment they deemed him to fit into the mold of a stoic, hard-to-approach character.

Bokuto had been different, and although they were still near polar opposites, they had formed a well-founded friendship that lasted through Keiji's high school years and well into university as well despite their different educational choices. Bokuto was ridiculous, yes, and Keiji appreciated it – quietly and wordlessly, but appreciated nonetheless.

Now that he was on his own, though social media was a great help in keeping in touch with his old teammates and friends, Keiji found it hard to adjust. The responsbility that came with living on one's own was like a woolen shirt: hard to get used to, but eventually he warmed up to it. It helped that he occasionally saw a familiar face around the campus, since he had remained in Tokyo unlike most of his old team. Some of them hadn't gotten in, either.

He didn't have a roommate, yet. It added more stress to Keiji's daily life as he had to make sure his groceries would last through the week and that laundry got done and then leave some time for vigorous study sessions as university courses were unforgiving. It left very little time to socializing and getting to know new people, which Keiji was fine with, but there was a nagging feeling in the back of his head that he should try to get out of his shell more. It wasn't like Bokuto-san was there to ease his way into the inner circle anymore.

Keiji was mourning over his lack of a life outside his apartment and campus (and Twitter, as Bokuto-san as well as Kuroo-san and others had migrated there) one day as his hands cradled a coffee purchased from the campus cafeteria. His destination was the library, as it was the quietest place in the whole building, save from the sounds of hurried typing as students tried to finish up their essays at the last possible moments.

Not that Akaashi could blame them, having been there more than once in the past months. No matter how well he tried to schedule some time to writing everything, his plans seemed to crumble into nothing in the face of exhaustion and, well, Kuroo-san's latest retweets of kitten pictures. Those were very cute kittens, mind you.

Seating himself at the most secluded desk, shoved between and behind shelves of research article collections, Keiji managed to breathe again. He didn't think himself as very anxious person by nature, but the throngs of students around the campus managed to make his skin crawl in an unpleasant manner. Seclusion and quiet were better.

Public transportation was more horrid, but Keiji had earphones and a music player with awful battery for those limited times.

Taking a sip of his tea – kiwi and strawberry, what an interesting combination – Keiji relaxed against the comfortable back of the chair and closed his eyes for one long moment. The distant typing was a soothing sound, and Keiji felt like he could doze off right there and then if he allowed himself. He wouldn't, though, and so he opened his eyes with reluctance.

He really could do with a bit of a nap, though. Four hours were hardly enough to use to run around the campus all day. Shortly put, Keiji felt like he had been ran over by a track and then tossed into a ditch. Maybe he should have bought some black coffee instead.

Turning to the bag he had placed down, Keiji pulled up his books and ignored the cracks and aches in his bones that told him to go to sleep. The afternoon classes still loomed in his near future, after all.

About ten minutes into his cramming session, Keiji's concentration fell as he heard a person shuffling by. Distracted, Keiji allowed his eyes to wander over to where the footsteps originated, and they caught sight of another university student that seemed to be around Keiji's age. It didn't happen as often as one might think, and even rarer was the tingling sensation familiarity that Keiji got from the pale gray of the other's hair.

That feeling grew stronger when the other turned fully towards Keiji, head lowered as he read a book, lips moving and whispering the words that sounded very much like a Freudian theory. Keiji cringed inwardly. For most part.  _Poor him._

"Oh," the other raised his head and saw Keiji, warm brown eyes widening in surprise. "I thought no one knew of this part of the library. Sorry, did I disrupt you?"

"Not at all," Keiji smiled a little. The beauty mark at the corner of the other's left eye confirmed what Keiji had suspected – he had met this person before. "Sugawara-san, right? It has been a while."

Sugawara, the former setter for Karasuno High, blinked before the corners of his mouth lips lifted up in delight. "Akaashi-kun? It  _has_  been a while... forever, even."

Keiji nodded, his face easing into a soft smile of his own. "It has. I didn't see your school in the last nationals."

As difficult as it had been, Keiji had managed to lead Fukurodani to the nationals once more. Bokuto-san's legacy that was left behind (the impression the former captain had left on then first-year players, among other things) had aided Keiji greatly in guiding them there. No grand victory on the big stage, but their performance had been more than satisfactory.

Karasuno, to Keiji's slight disappointment, hadn't made it.

"Yes, I heard," Sugawara sighed, shrugging as he took the seat beside Keiji's. The two chairs were the only ones around the desk that was too small for two people's books to fit on comfortably. "Ennoshita was borkenhearted about it, but he did a good job as the captain, or so I heard from Ukai-san when I inquired."

"He has nothing to be ashamed for," Keiji agreed. The impression he had gotten from Ennoshita Chikara when they last met had changed since the first training camp. "I heard Tsukishima is the new captain."

"It's true," Sugawara's grin widened and he lowered his voice, "I just hope he's not antagonizing the poor first years."

"I don't think he's the kind of person..."

"Tanaka and Nishinoya are awful influences on a person," Sugawara cringed, but the gently amused smile remained.

"True enough," Keiji laughed politely, feeling a little out of his element with someone he had no interactions outside of volleyball, the sport that he had loved and still did but which didn't make it into his current schedule. Turning his eyes to the open page of his textbook, he cringed and felt a headache forming. But at least it wasn't Freud.

"You don't look so well." Of course Sugawara picked up on it. Keiji shifted uncomfortably as the other's hand came to rest on his shoulder. "Long night behind you?"

"Very," Keiji lamented, lips curling into a grimace. "I had some last minute reading to do that I completely forgot before the clock had struck midnight."

"Oh no," Sugawara gasped, his hand rubbing Keiji's shoulder soothingly. "That's shitty. For an afternoon class?"

"Yeah... I thought I should reread the passage now, but I can't seem to concentrate."

Tilting his head a little to throw a glance at Sugawara, Keiji managed to catch the way Sugawara's lips pursed into a thin line before easing again as his brown eyes fluttered to meet Keiji's green-flecked ones. "I'm going to buy you a cupcake."

If the people who had called Keiji stonefaced could see the look of utter bafflement that crossed Keiji's expression then, they would have taken their words right back. "Huh?"

* * *

 

Sugawara had been serious about the cupcake offer, and after the initial confusion, Keiji felt gratefulness swell inside him. He hadn't had enough time for a breakfast bigger than a piece of toast and a glass of juice.

"I'm sorry, if this is too presumptuous of me," Sugawara smiled at Keiji, and although he did look apologetic, that smile was bright enough to blind a person. Keiji wondered if it had always been like that as he took a bite of his cupcake. Mm. Delicious. "I thought that some snacks might help. If not, sugar at least does..."

"Don't worry about it," Keiji smiled softly. "I appreciate it, Sugawara-san."

"No one actually calls me that, you know," Sugawara grinned. "Call me Suga."

"Suga..." Keiji tried it out.

"Yeah, that's it." Sugawara tilted his head, leaning one cheek against the palm of his hand.

"...san," Keiji finishd, laughing when Sugawara's lips curled into a disappointed pout.

"Akaashi,"  _Suga_  whined, and Keiji hid his mouth behind his hand to conceal the smirk that was splayed on his lips. "Please stop playing with my heart."

"But I'm not," Keiji fluttered his eyelashes in an exaggeratedly innocent fashion. He failed at it, though. "Really."

"Really," Suga repeated with a bubbling laughter that had his shoulders quake from the force of it. "Fine, I can live with 'Suga-san', it's not like Nishinoya and Tanaka have stopped doing that, either."

Keiji ate some more of the cupcake Suga had bought for him despite Keiji's quietly spoken protests. The icing stuck to his upper lip, embarrassingly so, and Keiji quietly wiped it off with a napkin. Suga smiled a bit, shoving his cupcake towards Keiji's side of the table. A raise of eyebrows was the response he got.

"You look like you could use a little more," Suga said simply. "Don't worry, it's my treat."

"...Thank you," Keiji murmured, knowing when there was no room for argument. "I did need that."

Much more than the cupcakes, though, it was Suga's company that lightened his mood and eased the itching feeling of loneliness that had seeped into him in the past weeks almost unnoticeably. Keiji hadn't even realized it before the casual exchange with Suga happened.

Hm.

"Told you so," Suga said, not in the obnoxious way like Kuroo or Bokuto would have, but in a sweetly genuine tone that put Keiji at ease, unlike most people he had met in university the past couple of months. "If you're up for it, we can do this again some other day. It's pretty nice to see a familiar face other than Daichi and Kuroo's."

"Kuroo-san doesn't go to this university, though?"

"Oh, he comes over to my apartment with Daichi sometimes... it's the thing that couples do together: invade the single friend's place and tell them to get their head in the game." Suga rolled his eyes.

Keiji grimaced. "That's... obnoxious."

"That it is," Suga agreed. Glancing at his wristwatch, his expression flitted towards worry. "Crap, I'm starting to run late if I don't leave soon. See you around, Akaashi."

Keiji nodded just as Suga dashed out from the cafeteria with a wave of his hand, the messenger bag thumping against the side of Suga's thigh as he disappeared from Keiji's view.

_Ah... I hope I'll see him again._

* * *

 

As it turned out, he did meet Suga again despite his worries that it might be difficult as they had exchanged no phone numbers or any other method of contact.

The place of their first random encounter served as a place for several more. It was often Suga that found Keiji slumped over the desk scribbling down notes to himself, but sometimes Suga arrived first with two steaming teas and psychology books and the occasional look of misery caused by university life. Keiji couldn't deny that he appreciated Suga's radiant presence in his otherwise busy schedule. (Kuroo-san had caught wind of it, too, texting him  _you should come and spend some Saturday nights with us all, y'kno_ , to which Keiji had answered a cautious  _I shouldn't disturb a well-established arrangement with my presence._ )

It was a nice little thing they had going on: spending time with each other, often in silence and sometimes talking when the stress levels just didn't allow any cramming, and buying tea or coffee for each other, depending on the day – Thursdays, for example, had become Espresso Thursdays.

"You ever think we should take this," Suga gestured between them one day, "out of university environment? As nice as having a partner in stress is, I'd prefer a friend."

"It would be nice," Keiji agreed after a brief moment of superficial consideration.

"Maybe for a Saturday night foursome?" Suga's eyes gleamed as he said this, lips quirking up as Keiji choked on air. "Yes, Kuroo told me he had invited you, but you declined for whatever reason."

"I didn't want to be a bother," Keiji mumbled, his neck burning with embarrassment as he glanced away from Suga and down at his readings for the upcoming class regarding Tokyo's several ecosystems.

"Don't be silly," Suga linked their arms and smiled, thus nearly blinding Keiji once more. "Daichi's not as grumpy as he pretends to be, and Kuroo would be more manageable if there was someone doing some damage control with me."

Keiji couldn't bring himself to say  _but I'd rather spend time with just you_.

"If you say so," he smiled back, the furrow between his brows easing as Suga's grip on his arm tightened for one blink of a moment. "Thank you for the invitation, Suga-san."

"It's no big deal between friends, right?" Suga's elbow bumped against Keiji's ribs, perhaps not on purpose, but the playful glint in the brown eyes said otherwise.

Keiji sighed. He might be doing that on the next Saturday night a lot.

* * *

 

But before any of that, there was the week of companionable silences and coffee slash tea trips that induced either sighs of utter gratitude for the existence of caffeine or laughter at how everyone looked like they were on a death row despite it being barely a Tuesday (then Wednesday, and Thursday, and eventually Friday, but everyone looked way more lively on a Friday).

Bokuto, who too had learned of Keiji's suddenly lit social life, was excited.

**BokuHoot4:** _dude! it's totally a date_

**AkaKeiji:** _bokuto-san, no_

**BokuHoot4:** _bokuto-san YES_

**AkaKeiji:** _…_

**KuroTetsurou:** _it's not a date if there's no kissing involved tho_

**AkaKeiji:** _bye._

.

.

"Twitter?" Suga blinked as he caught sight of the familiar blue stripe on Keiji's phonescreen before the phone slid into Keiji's pocket.

"Yes," Keiji pursed his lips. "Bokuto-san suggested something rather silly, that's all."

Suga, sitting across from Keiji, smiled a knowing smile. "It gets doubly worse when Kuroo's involved, though."

"That's why I left," Keiji sighed and took a long sip from his mocca. He didn't particularly like mocca, but Suga had convinced him to try it at least once.  _It's on my 'thing to do before I die' -list,_ Suga had elaborated with a coy laugh. "Kuroo-san joined in with a silly comment of his own."

"Oh, he does that," Suga snickered, a look of sympathy crossing his features as Keiji rubbed at his temples. "Have you been sleeping any better?"

"Little by little," Keiji nodded, not mentioning that he had been staying up to finish a journal due within the next two weeks. He was going to stay on top of his homework this time. "I should cut down my consumption of tea in the evenings."

Suga tutted disapprovingly. "One of these days we'll have a sleepover and I will make you have the best night's sleep you've ever had, Akaashi."

"That sounds vaguely threatening," Keiji couldn't help laughing, which in itself was a testament to how much better he was feeling than some weeks ago.

"It can be," Suga joked, and both of them laughed until their breaths got stuck in their threats and laughs turned into coughs instead.

* * *

 

Saturday night, as it turned out, wasn't a  _complete_ disaster, and Keiji actually enjoyed himself a lot in the company of Sawamura, Kuroo, and Suga. It was surprising, for him, since he didn't see himself getting along with such a variety of personalities well. Sawamura was one thing, being a steady shoulder and all in all a practical mind, but Kuroo and Suga in the same room made him skeptic.

"Please, I'm not as bad as Kuroo," Suga laughed when Keiji voiced his previous concerns to him as all four of them squeezed into Suga's minimalistic couch. Keiji's shoulders felt like they would crumble between Suga and Kuroo's.

"What's  _that_  supposed to mean," Kuroo pouted, and Keiji suppressed a smile at the expression he had seen many times at past training camps. "Daichi, defend your boyfriend's honor!"

" _What_  honor?" Sawamura muttered. He was on Kuroo's right side, squeezed between him and the arm of the couch.

"Ouch," Kuroo moaned, but from the corner of his eye, Keiji saw the way Kuroo's mouth tilted up. Oh boy. He was so smitten with Sawamura, it was painful to look at.

Suga laughed by his other side, leaning closer to whisper, "See, it's easier when there's someone to share the pain with me."

Suga's breath lingered, warming Keiji's skin on his cheek, ear and neck to the point where Keiji felt like he would combust. It was but a shift of air against him, but Keiji's heart was grabbed by the feeling, squeezed until Keiji wondered if it was even beating anymore.

"That's one way to call your friends," Keiji murmured back, eyes unblinking as they met Suga's. In the background, Kuroo and Sawamura bickered with syrapy fondness obvious in their tones.

The eye contact continued for an uncomfortably long moment, during which Keiji's stomach spun like butterflies has flown down there and fluttered their wings like a hummingbird: aggressively and dizzyingly fast. Or maybe that was his heart.

 _Don't be a fool, Keiji,_ he admonished himself as hs eyes slid to stare at the TV screen that none of them were watching yet as they waited for... whatever show they were going to watch to begin. Keiji wasn't quite sure what show it was. He might have been a little too preoccupied by Suga's grin rather than his words back when that was discussed.

"You're friends with  _Bokuto_ ," Suga reminded Keiji patiently. "You know what I mean."

"Yes," Keiji agreed with a quiet snicker, "I do."

Somewhere, in the background where life was simpler than Keiji's complicated feelings, Kuroo murmured to Sawamura, "They're so cute, I want to  _gag._ "

"You're one to talk," Sawamura sighed just as Kuroo leaned over for a smooch.

* * *

 

"A group selfie!" Suga announced just before Kuroo and Sawamura could start making out on the sofa – alright, Keiji acknowledged as his lips quirked up, that was an exaggeration. Still, it was obvious how lovey dovey Sawamura and Kuroo got around each other: the flirty gazes and quietly spoken words of absolute devotion were enough to make Keiji uncomfortable just to sit beside them.

"Whoop!" Kuroo bumped his fist up towards the ceiling, earning three perplexed pairs of eyes on him. "...Oops, right, none of you are Bokuto."

What Sawamura said next was lost on Keiji as he watched Suga hold up the phone while muttering something about lacking a selfie stick. In the next moment, Suga brightened up, the smile on his face warm as he said, "Smile, you three!"

Keiji smiled a very similar smile to the times he spent in private thinking about the friendship between him and Suga. Sometimes it felt silly how much better just recalling Suga's words of encouragement and support made him feel.

"Please tell my face shows up there," Kuroo groaned as they recorvered from the flash of the phone's camera and slowly inched close to look over Suga's shoulders. "...Holy shit."

Suga was a little dazed as he laughed. "Oh, my God, I think we have an angel amongst us."

"Huh?" Keiji looked at the picture on Suga's phone, blinking. "What do you mean?"

"Akaashi,  _your smile is a gift from the gods._ "

Akaashi blinked, noting the flustered look that passed Suga's face. What. "Suga-san, you must be talking about yourself."

Sawamura and Kuroo both looked incredibly smug as they watched their exchange, and the lack of distance on the couch made it all the more obvious.

"No, no," Suga shook his head as he tilted the phone towards Keiji. "Look at you."

Not seeing anything strange, Keiji raised an eyebrow at Suga. He didn't bother mentioning that Suga's smile was a sight to behold, too, though he should have gotten used to it during their quickly formed friendship.

"You guys," Kuroo eventually broke in, "we're missing the show, y'know."

"Oh, shit," Suga cringed, glanced the television. "Let's just use Oikawa's Netflix."

"He still hasn't noticed?"

"Nope."

"That's," Sawamura raised an eyebrow, "amazing."

"Yep." Suga grinned at his best friend, resting his hand on top of Keiji's. "Fetch the laptop, Daichi."

"Oh, c'mon–"

"You always make Asahi suffer when we visit him," Suga pointed out. "It's only fair you help me out with things." A lot of things, if Sawamura's exasperation hinted at anything.

"'Sides," Kuroo stage-whispered, though everyone could hear him, "let Sugawara have his moment with Akaashi here. You know what they say, romance is the springtime of youth-"

Suga leaned over Keiji to punch Kuroo in the arm.

* * *

 

So, it turned into a  _Netflix and chill_  evening, with the emphasis on  _chill_ , though Keiji found his focus not staying on the series they were marathoning as his eyes continuously slipped to Suga by his side. Suga's hand that rested against his was warm, relaxed, and Keiji's skin under it tingled.

...Alright, he could be honest to himself. He would like it to be a date, but he was a realist at heart, and he doubted his chances with Suga were all that high. The insecurity was infuriating, but Keiji schooled his face into a blank neutrality as Kuroo made another lame pun with the expectation that everyone would laugh. No one did, but everyone did groan, either outwardly or inwardly. Sawamura took revenge by pulling Kuroo into a headlock, and then it was time for Suga and Keiji to laugh.

It was nice, having friends that could pull you away from all the stress of being an adult and responsible for your own actions.

And Keiji was happier than he remembered being since the start of the semester.

* * *

 

It was the next day, and Keiji found himself in Suga's company again – this time at his apartment rather than Suga's. It was smaller, easier to clean with less space, but it felt bigger with Suga's presence within its walls.

What a ridiculous sentiment. Bokuto would have a field day with it if Keiji tried to articulate these thoughts to him. Konoha, too.

"Yesterday was nice, wasn't it?" Suga's still somewhat sleepy voice broke through Keiji's thoughts, startling him and his already Suga-infested heart.

"Mm," Keiji hummed in agreement as he stirred his tea, brows furrowed as he tried to still the nervousness that prickled at his nerves. "Kuroo-san and Sawamura-san make a good couple."

Well, that wasn't what he had meant to say at all...

Suga laughed before taking a sip from one of Keiji's owl-patterned tea cups. "They do. Daichi looks like he's pretty happy – you should see him when he gets sentimental after a few shots."

"Kuroo-san never shuts up about Sawamura-san either," Keiji smiled faintly. "He's always tweeting about him, and posting selfies of them together."

"Ah, youth," Suga mimicked Kuroo's favorite catchphrase, smile turning into a teasing smirk, which made Keiji choke on his tea as laughter tried to bubble past his lips. Suga grinned at the sight before leaning over to brush his fingers against Keiji's eyebrows.

"See, this is why I don't get people who say you have only one facial expression," he said softly, ignorant to the way Keiji's heart jumped. Suga's index and middle finger poked at Keiji's skin between the eyebrows, touch gentle and unashamed.

"Suga?" Flustered, Keiji couldn't bring himself to utter the honorific.

"An angel," Suga murmured, eyelids halfway down as he looked at Keiji like Keiji was that heavenly entity. "I wasn't kidding, you know. You look like an angel."

"Suga-san, please stop teasing me," Keiji cleared his throat, hand reaching out to grasp Suga's wrist so that he could bring the hand down from his face. He didn't go through with it. "Maybe this is why Bokuto-san is so sure that we're dating."

Suga's eyes twinkled, which was the prelude to his following words. "Aren't we?"

The flabbergasted expression that spread over Keiji's face was something that Suga would laugh about for the next week or so.

"Geesh, we've all but held hands and kissed, but everything else seems like straight-up dating, doesn't it?" Suga's eyes softened as his hand moved down from Keiji's face, moving until he could intertwine his fingers with Keiji's.

Keiji was speechless. "I. Uh."

"Your neck is burning up, isn't it?" Suga grinned mischievously. "It's cute how your face doesn't blush, but your neck and ears do."

"You're being cruel, Suga-san," Keiji protested, squeezing Suga's fingers. "I just- it's not possible that someone like you would-"

"I didn't make myself obvious enough, I see." Suga smiled almost sadly. "Akaashi, let's go on a proper date one of these days."

* * *

 

 _I was asked out by an actual angel today,_ Keiji later updated his Facebook and Twitter.

* * *

 

"You realize hat this means, right?" Kuroo asked Daichi as he checked his Twitter feed on his phone.

"Mm?" Daichi didn't seem entirely interested in what Kuroo had to say.

"We're no longer the hottest thing in our neighborhood."

"Oh, god, you're being ridiculous again."

"You loooove me for it, though, hot stuff." Kuroo winked as he glanced up, smirking as Daichi's face gained a new shade of red.

And no one had dinner that night.


End file.
